The process of innovation
I thought I�d expand a little on the process of innovation, in connection with my post on patents. We all look for ideas to do better, at all levels � reaching a higher conversion rate, releasing a new killer feature for our software product, etc. I�ve learned a few lessons as an entrepreneur, and maybe this could be useful to the blog�s audience.
First and foremost, the most important thing for creating innovation is to eradicate any cynicism in your organization. When I was a student at Stanford, I took a Computer Architecture class � it was one of my first classes after I arrived from Europe. The professor started his class outlining some of the pre-requisites/etc, then made a point about most ideas being bad ideas. I still remember the PPT slide with the words on it �There are lots of ideas out there, most of them are bad�. Well, frankly if you know that you are going to get shot down and called stupid everytime you have an idea the most natural reaction is to not talk about ideas.
Second, and related, be mindful of your own reactions when people come share their ideas with you. Sharing an idea, particularly with the boss, etc, is an act of courage. I know for example that building on someone�s idea, whether the idea is eventually dismissed or validated in its original form is the most effective encouraging and rewarding message you can send.
Ideas take time to mature. I�ll give you one example: at Fireclick we quickly figured our customers needed help interpreting their analytical reports. One thing that was missing was some kind of benchmarking, where customer X could compare its conversion rates for instance to other customers in the same vertical. Originally we thought we could have a best practices group, or organize online Webinars to share some of these stats, or even formally introduce customers to each other so they could discuss. None of these worked, until we actually decided to create the Fireclick Index, a benchmarking service for online businesses. That was the answer, which took us 18 months to figure out (we released it in 2003).
Ideas [typically] don�t come from brainstorm, solutions do. That�s just observation, and I could be wrong � I�ve just noticed that brainstorms are good for finding solutions to a *specific* problem. In the early days at Fireclick, we institutionalized a 2H brainstorm every Thursday at 7AM, horrible time of the day for this kind of thing (the intent was to avoid any disruption). In hindsight, these meetings were good because they help set the right corporate environment for innovation, but most of them would typically end up on a frustrating note with no decisions made. By contrast, whenever we have big problem to solve and organize informal brainstorm meetings we find the solution and everyone feels good.
Customer ideas are typically higher quality. We all know this � but it�s so true. Maybe because customers actually point you to a problem you can creatively solve, which is easier.
Communication. This is where I personally struggle the most, partly because I�m a very impatient person and I never take the time to fully �package� my ideas before I share them. In smaller structures, we typically do not have the time to fully research ideas and find the right words to describe it. But it�s an essential step. Make your idea attractive and people will love to discuss it.
Last but not least, take action. It�s ok if you fail, because you�ll have learned something along the way and your next idea will be better. Personally, I�ve failed a lot, with some success along the way that makes it all worth it.